How Crafting + Community Collide at The Farmhouse in Evansville

If you love crafting, interior decor, and friendly people, you’ll love The Farmhouse – an Evansville area shop offering crafting classes and handmade decor in a cozy and welcoming environment. Owner Kiersten Stahl developed this business out of a simple hobby, and her love of people and community has allowed her business to thrive.

Kiersten was more than happy to share her story of how The Farmhouse got its start, and what people can expect when they visit.

How did you get into crafting?

“This is something I’ve always done. A long time ago, I made cakes for weddings, birthdays, and baby showers. I would also do cookies, party decorations, and invitations, which I continue to do on the side. That evolved into handmade signs, greeting cards, and other similar things. This all started about 14 years ago when my son turned two years old. I decided to make his birthday cake and do all the invitations myself, and I thought, ‘this is pretty fun!’ ”

And how did this hobby develop into the business you have today?

“I used to have a spot at the Newburgh Farmers Market during the summer months. I would sell all of my shirts, greeting cards, signs, and everything I made during that time. Customers were always asking, ‘Where are you located? Where can I find you during the week?’

So, originally when we first thought about building something out here on our farm, we thought it would just be a workspace for me where customers could come in, pick up their items, and see other items we had for sale throughout the week. However, the more we thought about it, we realized we would love to help promote other local makers too. So why not turn it into a store?

So that’s how The Farmhouse started. We would ask people at the Newburgh Farmers Market if they would consider selling wholesale to us, and now I’d say about half of the products in our store are made locally within Indiana or throughout the United States.”

What have been some of the highlights of running The Farmhouse?

“First and foremost it’s the customers. I’ve met so many wonderful people that I would’ve never met otherwise. They became great friends, and I know their kids and their grandkids. It’s been the biggest blessing.

For example, there’s a lady who comes in our store often and she always says that this is her happy place, which brings tears to my eyes. It makes us feel so special, that she considers this to be one of her favorite places to come, relax, and enjoy herself. They’re just wonderful people like so many of our customers.”

What can people get from you that they can’t get at a chain craft or interior store?

“We pride ourselves on our customer service – it’s the most important thing to us. We want our customers to feel welcome and loved on, and we want The Farmhouse to be a comfortable, warm environment. We give customers space to look around, but we’re always aware of them and available if they have questions. We offer bottles of water for free, and most days we have coffee in the store. Our customer service is above and beyond what you could get in a chain store.”

Do you host events or classes?

“Yes, we have both! We have two major events this year. One is our May Market, which is on May 4th. We’ll have about 40 to 45 vendors out here, live music, and a food truck or two. It’s just a really great time to promote local makers. People park across the street at the farm, and we have golf carts running back and forth for people who don’t want to walk or aren’t able to. It’s a really fun event and we do the same thing in October as well.

Also, we don’t charge for our events. A lot of craft shows will charge admission or parking, but we don’t do anything like that. We just want the community to come by, enjoy themselves, and meet new vendors they might have never heard of before.

As far as our classes go, I offer several. We have cookie decorating classes, jewelry-making, bath and body, and we have some painting classes coming up. I teach some of these classes and some of the makers whose products we stock in the store do classes here as well.”

What do you love about the Evansville community?

“The community is wonderful. I always say we have the very best customers – everyone is so nice. Also, more and more people are wanting to shop locally rather than at the big chain stores. I really feel like Evansville and Newburgh have jumped on that and tried to shop local as much as possible. That’s really special about our community.”

We agree! The local love here in the Evansville area is incredible and helps businesses like The Farmhouse thrive. You can find The Farmhouse on Towny (onlineor on your phone!) to explore Evansville businesses and get rewarded for shopping local.